Description

Imagined Theatres collects theoretical dramas written by some of the leading scholars and artists of the contemporary stage. These dialogues, prose poems, and microfictions describe imaginary performance events that explore what might be possible and impossible in the theatre.

Each scenario is mirrored by a brief accompanying reflection, asking what they might mean for our thinking about the theatre. These many possible worlds circle around questions that include:

In what way is writing itself a performance?

How do we understand the relationship between real performances that engender imaginary reflections and imaginary conceptions that form the basis for real theatrical productions?

Are we not always imagining theatres when we read or even when we sit in the theatre, watching whatever event we imagine we are seeing?

Table of Contents

Introduction

Imagined Theatres

137 Titles (I)

Tim Etchells Gloss: Tim Etchells

137 Titles (II)

Tim Etchells Gloss: Tim Etchells

137 Titles (III)

Tim Etchells Gloss: Tim Etchells

After Dinner

Julia Jarcho Gloss: Julia Jarcho

"All the world's a…"

Baz Kershaw Gloss: Baz Kershaw

Ancestor Call—Guerrero

Cherríe L. Moraga Gloss: Brian Eugenio Herrera

Ancestor Call—Malinche

Cherríe L. Moraga Gloss: Helen Paris

Anecdote of the Stage (after Stevens)

John F. Muse Gloss: John F. Muse

Animal Friendship: A Docudrama

Minou Arjomand Gloss: Broderick D.V. Chow

The Art of Forgetting

Daniel Sack Gloss: Daniel Sack

Astigmatisms

Isaiah Matthew Wooden Gloss: Natalie Alvarez

Candle Tears

Meiling Cheng Gloss: Meiling Cheng

Casting, Four Ways

Brian Eugenio Herrera Gloss: Brian Eugenio Herrera

A Chinese Actor's Late Style

Broderick D.V. Chow Gloss: Broderick D.V. Chow

Cities of Refuge

Dominika Laster Gloss: Yelena Gluzman

The Classroom

Lin Hixson Gloss: Matthew Goulish

Clockfire

Jonathan Ball Gloss: Jonathan Ball

, Colon;zations and Exclamations!: A Set Piece Staged for the Page

Jennifer DeVere Brody Gloss: Jennifer DeVere Brody

The Copper Thieves

Irma Mayorga Gloss: Irma Mayorga

Court Theatre

Petra Kuppers Gloss: VK Preston

Crow Takes Hat

Erik Ehn Gloss: Irma Mayorga

Crowds with the Shape of Reason Missing

Alan Read Gloss: Alan Read

Dance for Baghdad

Pavol Liska Gloss: Nicholas Ridout

dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/Home

Sharon Bridgforth Gloss: Nia Witherspoon

Dealing

W.B. Worthen Gloss: Aaron C. Thomas

Disappearing Act

Fintan Walsh Gloss: Aaron C. Thomas

A Displacement

Patrick Anderson Gloss: Rajni Shah

Dreams on Screen

Rachel Joseph Gloss: Rachel Joseph

Earthly

Joe Kelleher Gloss: Joe Kelleher

Eavesdropping in on a Cyclical Conversation

Carl Hancock Rux Gloss: Jennifer DeVere Brody

Enema of the People

Stephen Bottoms Gloss: Stephen Bottoms

esprit de corps

Kimberly Jannarone Gloss: Joshua Abrams

Extremely poor children

Romeo Castellucci Gloss: Joe Kelleher

FADE TO BLACK: Notes toward a re-performance of gestures that never occurred